The Barron Park Association

art liberman

Barron Park Association Board position on the Maybell-Clemo project

 City Actions and Activities in Barron Park, Zoning and Developments  1 Response »
May 222013
 

To the Planning and Transportation Commission – May 22, 2013

Summary: The Board of the Barron Park Association understands the need and supports the effort by the Palo Alto Housing Corporation to build affordable housing for seniors. However, we feel the location identified in the P&TC Staff Report (ID# 3721) as 567-Maybell Avenue is not a suitable location for such a high density project and rezoning should not be approved.

Background: The proposed development in its current form would create a significant negative impact in our neighborhood and our neighboring neighborhoods. It would further increase the traffic congestion experienced and endanger pedestrian and bicycle safety on Maybell Avenue and on the surrounding local streets and create a density and size of housing along Maybell Avenue that is out of scale with the surrounding community.  Additionally, it would significantly impact and reduce emergency response time to any emergencies within 2 neighborhoods; especially those emergencies which may happen during the hours of standstill traffic congestion.

The proposal itself specifies that all automobiles enter and exit the project via a driveway on Clemo Avenue, which would direct all traffic to and from a stop-controlled intersection on Arastradero Road; however the ‘Mitigated Negative Declaration” (MND) for the environmental review states that this would create an adverse impact to traffic circulation. Instead of recommending changes on Arastradero Road (for example, returning Arastradero and Charleston Road to 4 lanes), the MND recommendation (by the Traffic Division staff) states this must be mitigated by allowing traffic to flow into and out of the project on Maybell Avenue by obtaining an easement to use the PAHC-owned neighboring 65-unit development’s driveway onto Maybell Avenue. This neighboring 65-unit PAHC development not only consists of one, but also, two, three and four bedroom units, which are already contributing to the congested traffic on Maybell .

The average daily traffic (ADT) on Maybell Avenue – a bicycle boulevard and a heavily used corridor by bicyclists and pedestrians – increased by 25% as a consequence of the “re-striping” of Arastradero Road and is already at a level, 3350 vehicles per day on a weekday, that significantly exceeds the acceptable volume on a local residential street (2500 vehicles per day) as defined by Palo Alto’s own Traffic Calming Program.

The proposal would exacerbate an already serious issue in the neighborhood. We categorically reject statements in the Traffic Study commissioned by the PAHC and in the MND that the additional amount of traffic on Maybell Avenue ‘would not be significant.’

Barron Park Association’s  Specific Recommendation:

1)      Keep the current zoning and do not approve the proposed PC re-zone.

Sincerely,

Lydia Kou – for the Board of the Barron Park Association

Emergency Preparedness and Safety Committee Chair & Secretary

Maybell Homes & Clemo Senior Housing: Staff Reports and Planning Documents for PTC meeting

 City Actions and Activities in Barron Park, Zoning and Developments  No Responses »
May 182013
 

The Planning and Transportation Commission will be holding a special meting on the proposal from the Palo Alto Housing Corporation to rezone the Maybell-Clemo project site to ‘Planned Community’ (PC).

When: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 @ 6:00 PM
Where: City Council Chambers

You can download the agenda for the Planning and Transportation Commission meeting here: May22_Special meeting agenda with embeded links. The report has embedded links to the Staff report and to the PAHC submittals that I have pulled out and listed below along with some text from the document.

Public Hearing:
“567-595 Maybell Avenue [12PLN-00453]: Request by Candice Gonzalez on behalf of Palo Alto Housing Corporation, for Planning and Transportation Commission review and recommendation to Council regarding a new Planned Community (PC) zone district and Comprehensive Plan land use designation amendment to allow a 15 single family home and a 60 unit affordable rental project for seniors on parcels having a combined area of 107,392 square feet and zoned R-2 and RM-15.
Environmental Assessment: An Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration have been prepared.”
” Staff recommends that the Planning and Transportation Commission recommend that the City Council approve:

  1. The Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration (Attachment K);
  2. A Resolution amending the Comprehensive Plan designation for a portion of the site from Multifamily to Single Family (Attachment B);
  3. A Planned Community ordinance rezoning (Attachment A); with Conditions of Approval (Attachment D) of the subject property from RM-15 and R-2 for a 15 unit single family and a 60 unit multifamily affordable rental project for seniors, including two concessions for providing affordable rental units under California Government Code 65915.”

Staff Report with Recommendations:
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/34464

PTC Submittals from the Palo Alto Housing Corporation (Development Plans)
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/34465
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/34466
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/34467

Neighbor / Public Correspondence
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/34468

Environmental Review and Updated Traffic Study for Maybell Homes and Clemo Senior Housing Project

 City Actions and Activities in Barron Park, Zoning and Developments  No Responses »
May 112013
 
 City Planner Tim Wong released two City staff documents pertaining to the proposed Maybell Homes and Clemo Senior Housing project.

 

The first document is the ‘Mitigated Negative Declaration” for the environmental review.  The second is a revised Traffic Study. You can download them at the links below.

 

Traffic issues are discussed in this post. If you have comments about the traffic study or traffic issues in the environmental review, contact Rafael Ruis, the City staff traffic engineer working on this project.
His number is 329-2305.
His email address is <Rafael.Rius@CityofPaloAlto.org>

 

1) Maybell-Clemo Mitigated Negative Declaration: Environmental Review. The review period ends May 30th.  This document, as does the updated Traffic Report, assumes as a baseline that the project only has a entrance/exit via the Clemo driveway. This report identifies this as an issue and suggests ‘mitigation’ measures that need to be adopted.

 

On page 44..

 

“Potential Impacts: If the Clemo Avenue driveway is the only access to the site and the access barriers on Clemo are not relocated, the stop-controlled Clemo Avenue approach at Arastradero Road would incur a substantial increase in delay and deterioration in the level of service during the AM peak hour. This would result in a potential significant effect on traffic operations at this intersection. If the access easement is obtained and there is site access from both Clemo and Maybell Avenues, there would be no significant adverse traffic impacts expected from the project. Or alternatively, if the Clemo barrier could be relocated east of the project driveway so that all project trips would access Clemo Avenue via Maybell Avenue, there would be no significant adverse traffic impacts expected from the project.
 
Mitigation Measures:
  1. In order to ensure that there are no adverse impacts to traffic circulation, one of the following mitigation measures shall be required.
    1. The project sponsor shall obtain an access easement through the adjacent Arastradero Park Apartment Complex to connect the site access aisle to the existing driveway for APAC on Maybell Avenue.
    2. If an access easement cannot be obtained and access is from a single driveway on Clemo Avenue, the access barriers on Clemo Avenue shall be reolocated from the intersection of Maybell Avenue to east of the project driveway on Clemo Avenue.”
2) The revised traffic study, Maybell Traffic Report 042313 , now uses as a baseline only the entrance/exit on Clemo, which matches the approach taken in the Environmental Review.
(Note: this is a revision to the Maybell Homes and Clemo Senior Project Traffic Study that was previously posted and described on this website.)

 

Here are some questions I asked Tim Wong about the revised study and (in red) is his response.

 

1. The revised proposal uses only the Clemo access and that the other two  (Arastadero easement, Clemo barrier move) are options that the City requested the consultant to study. Is this correct? Can you tell me if there anything new, any new data ?  Yes, the change in the traffic study was to reflect the Clemo via Arastradero access.  There were some additional comments to the Existing Site Observations (Pg. 8), Existing Plus Project Conditions Intersection Analysis (pg. 10) and Neighborhood Traffic Volume (Pg. 23).  But no new data was introduced.

 

2. From what I can see, there is still no consideration in the study of the amount of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, nor any reference to Safe Routes to School maps. I understand, from the consultant’s presentation at the meeting last week, this is a formulaic approach, it answers some questions. In my mind, as a document that ought to provide insight and consideration of neighborhood concerns, particularly safety in a neighborhood with so many schools and so many bicyclists and young pedestrians, it does not examine those issues and so it does not satisfy nor respond to some of the community’s critical questions.  The impacts of the proposed project on pedestrian and bicycle circulation were reviewed.  However, based on the size of the project and the amount of traffic generated by the project, the impacts on pedestrian and bicycle traffic were determined to be less than significant.  If you would like to discuss this in greater detail, you can also contact Rafael Rius, Traffic Engineer.  His number is 329-2305.

The BPA-Jobposting Email List – another community resource

 Email lists  No Responses »
Apr 292013
 

Art Liberman

Some time back, the BPA Board created a new email list, BPA-jobpostings. The objective was to create an online version of our kiosk on which folks post notes about some need or special capability they have to offer – whether it be a job they need help for, or some expertise they have for those who might be interested. In a similar way, folks who subscribe to the BPA-jobpostings list can send and receive emails from other group members if they have a job and need someone to do the work for them or let others know they are available to do some work themselves.

We placed a box on the back of our current membership sheet that you can check if you are interested – if so, I’ll send you an invitation to join.  Or you can click on the ‘Subscribe to the BPA-jobpostings email list ” and  subscribe yourself  [This is now one of the options on the “For Members Only’ page that is under the ‘Pages’ tab].  To actually access the page with the email subscribe box, you’ll need a password, which is the same password used for downloading the BPA Babysitting List. If you joined online, the password was emailed back to you; if you don’t have it, send us a request via the ‘Contact Us’ tab.

The BPA-jobpostings email list is a Google Group, just like the other BPA email lists. This means that when you subscribe to the email list, you join the group.

Examples of the types of work suitable for this list are:

BPA-jobpostings: an online version of our kiosk

  • yard cleanup
  • house maintenance
  • picking up groceries and errands
  • pet walking
  • office support and filing
  • mothers’ helpers
  • and tutoring

Some of these jobs would be ideal  for teenage or college age children or grandchildren of BPA members who are keen to pick up some extra money while helping out a Barron Park neighbor or a senior with some chore. If there are teenagers or college age children in your home who fit this picture, ask them to sign up or follow the list for them.

We have instituted several privacy protection measures for group members. The group is only open to current Barron Park Association members and members of their family. An email message sent to BPA-jobpostings goes to all members of the group; but if you receive an email describing a job you would like to do, just reply to the individual who sent the email. This way, if you are looking for work, you can keep your email address private.

This email list is not intended to include babysitting: the separate BPA Babysitting list continues as it has the past. The first compilation of BPA Babysitters for 2013-14 was just posted here
on our website.

Barron Park School’s IT Program in the news..

 School Activities and Events  No Responses »
Apr 202013
 

from Greta Gize Olbrich

Smita Kolhatkar is the Educational Technology Teacher On Special Assignment (TOSA) at Barron Park Elementary School in Palo Alto. She uses Scratch and Tynker in her school’s lunchtime programming club, which sparked similar programs at other schools in the Bay Area.

Read more about Smita and how Barron Park School successfully runs this club:
Tynkering at Lunchtime

” Tynker is a platform that can be flexibly integrated into a classroom or school. While some schools use it in their formal computer programming curriculums, other schools use it to enhance learning in classes like math, science, art and so forth. Still others have used it in extracurricular coding clubs, like this Lunchtime Club. Kids from across grades get together in a room, and experiment – there is no formal structure or curriculum, just a gentle direction, and the rest is up to the kids’ imagination.”

See also the previous post about Barron Park School: Barron Park School has IT

 

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